8Vallancey, Charles. An Account of the Ancient Stone Amphitheatre Lately Discovered in the County of Kerry, with Fragments of Irish History Related Thereto, etc. etc. etc. Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, 1812.This pamphlet may be read in its entirety here.
Most of Vallancey's
pamphlet was devoted to his theories regarding the non-Irish origin of the builders of the monument. From p. 2: "Before I enter into further description, it appears necessary for the information of the reader, to say something of the ancient inhabitants of Ireland, who were all Scuthae:, as stiled by the Greeks, but of very different stocks. One, rude, ignorant, and unlettered; the other, a polished and lettered people since the invention of letters." From pp. 56-57: "I do not aver...that there never was a Druid in Ireland: when they and the Bards were expelled by the Britons, a few may have secreted themselves in this country; but I mean to aver, that Druidism was not the established religion of the pagan Irish, but Budhism." Vallancey was not alone in his generation of antiquarians in harboring a prejudice that regarded the native Irish as unsuitable candidates for the construction of the great monuments of prehistoric Ireland.